Revenge
by themergitonian
Summary: When Percy is betrayed by the gods and cast into Tartarus, they expect to never see him again. They don't expect Percy to conquer the pit and return for revenge, so what will they do when he does?
1. I'm Back

**Disclaimer: I still don't own PJO or HoO (and probably never will).**

**Hi! You may think that the the characters are not in-character but stuff has happened to them and they've changed. This happens after HoO.**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- I'm Back -

Arrows whizz past me and embed themselves in the tree that I was in front of moments ago. I duck under some branches and hack some more away with Riptide while constantly moving to avoid being impaled.

Tired of running, I get to a clearing in the forest where I stop turn around to face my attackers. I bat away their arrows with Riptide and they stop shooting at me probably when they realize I've blocked all the arrows they've sent.

They emerge from the trees where they had been hiding and my suspicions about who had attacked me were confirmed. Two hunters who I had seen before but whose names I didn't know stood in front of me with their bows raised.

"Hey girls, miss me?" I say to annoy them. Their faces betray no emotion but I can tell they're annoyed. I've spent enough time with the hunters to know how to get them mad. Not a very difficult task must add. They already hate me just for being a guy.

"You're under arrest for treachery to the gods boy." A voice behind me says. I turn around to see Phoebe, her bow pointed at me with an arrow on the string.

"Phoebe! Looking young as ever. How's my cousin?" I talk to her while capping Riptide.

"Surrender peacefully or die Jackson, you're outnumbered." She tells me.

"No I'm not." I counter while starting to walk towards her, wanting to keep her distracted.

Unfortunately I had forgotten about the hunters behind me who noticed me walking towards Phoebe and fired at me. I hear their arrows flying thru the air behind me and I turn and tap a bracelet on my left wrist. A bow appears that I bring back to full draw and a blue shafted arrow appears already nocked.

I let loose four arrows at the hunters. Two of them hit the arrows they shot at me dead on splitting them in half and the other two embedded themselves in the trees behind the hunters after cutting through their bowstrings rendering their weapons useless.

"Hunters!" Phoebe cries as she drops her bow and draws her hunting knives while charging at me. Young girls jump out of the trees at the edge of the clearing most of them looking to be between 12-16 years old. I see a flaw in their strategy as they couldn't fire at me without risking hitting the hunter on the other side. They instead all draw knives and rush at me.

I calmed myself and waited for them to reach me. After tapping my bracket again my bow disappears and I draw Riptide.

Phoebe reaches me first and lashes out with both her knives. I dodge both her strikes and take time to mock her. "You've grown soft." I state as I use the hilt of my blade to knock one of her knives out of her hand while grabbing her other wrist. She growls and tries to punch me but I dodge it and twist her wrist making her drop her other knife. I hit her with Riptide's flat side and she falls to the ground, unconscious . I use Riptide to disarm and subdue the remaining hunters attacking me with ease. I don't kill any of them yet but they'll wake up to massive headaches for sure.

I step out from the pile of unconscious maidens to the edge of the clearing and leaned against a tree, waiting for a certain someone who wasn't amongst the hunters.

A couple of minutes later, my wait is over as Artemis, goddess of the moon, flashes into the clearing. She doesn't notice me since I am hiding my aura, a skill you quickly pick up in Tartarus. She notices the hunters who had been knocked out though and quickly scans the area for whoever did it. She notices me.

"Hey." I say before she can react.

"Traitor." She said unsheathing her silver hunting knives. "It was you who did this to them."

"Well, I can't take all the credit." I say grinning. "They certainly made it easy. Must be all that training you've given them."

She growls and stalks towards me. "I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer boy." She says. I laugh which only serves to annoy her more. That's good, people are easier to beat if they're angry.

I uncap Riptide and the water around me condenses into aquamarine coloured armour. The enraged goddess charges at me but retains her grace as she slashes at me. I parry her blows with ease while appearing to retreat making her come at me. I pretend to tire which makes her strike with more power and brashness leaving me more openings to exploit. I use one of said moments to flip the moon goddess on her back and driving my shoulder into her stomach. I quickly grab the knife in her right hand and hold it to her throat while using my knee to knock her other knife out of her reach. use her confusion to roll her into her stomach and pin her. I take off my bracelet and put around her neck. It hardens to form a collar and then appears again on my wrist while the collar remains on Artemis stopping her from assuming her true form or teleporting away.

"I was expecting a little more from the goddess of the hunt." I think out loud. "You Olympians haven't changed a bit. I held up the sky for you Artemis and you did nothing while Zeus cast me into the pit. No one did anything while I was tortured by your enemies that I defeated for you."

Somewhere along the line I realized I had stopped talking to Artemis but rather at Artemis. Finally getting some of the betrayal that I felt and had lived with for the past year off my shoulders

"I'd be dead if not for a stroke of luck. I managed to escape the titans and trained none stop from then forth. I defeated all the titans, I defeated Tartarus himself!" I shout at her. I stomp my foot and a hole opens up in the ground in front of her. Her eyes widen as she looks at it.

"I am the master of the Tartarus now. Enjoy your time in the pit." I say coolly and then throw her in.

I watch her fall until she's just a speck before closing the hole.  
Those in the pit knew she was coming. She would have a lot of enemies in Tartarus,  
after all, she had put most of them there herself.

The hunters are still out cold and I take the time to tie them all to different trees around the forest hoping to not have to deal with them again for a while. I open another hole and throw their weapons into it. A sacrifice for Tartarus. As I walk out of the clearing my armour evaporates and I cap Riptide.

I'm free at last.

And now it's time for revenge.

- Close -

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	2. Tartarus

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO and I never will.**

**I appreciate all the people who reviewed! Your feedback is much appreciated, I don't know whether people would like longer or shorter chapters, if you have an opinion you can comment it and I'll do my best to comply.**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Tartarus -

Followers, that's what I'll need. It's always nice to have company when plotting the demise of the gods, the problem is that there would be no demigods who would have the incentive to rebel against the gods after I had used my gift to give more equality to demigods. Another selfless decision that's come back to haunt me. I don't really need demigods though, since I can summon monsters from Tartarus itself but it would be nice.

The other thing I'll need will be a fortress. I already have the manpower and I assigned one if my generals to get the materials. I could always use the one on Mount Tam but I'd like to add my own personal touch and I don't want the shadow of a former defeat looming over me.

Alaska is the better option though, seeing as it's truly is a god forsaken place. It will be protected from the gods even without any wards and most demigods will avoid the icy state.

Have resolved with myself the location of my fortress I wave my hand over the ground and the shadows around me bend to form a gateway of darkness. It solidifies into a door that I open up to reveal stairs faintly illuminated by the stars.

As I descend the stairs I soon leave the light behind and am immersed in total darkness. I reflect on my reaction after the gods sent me here. I had been summoned to Olympus, a couple of months after the Giant war had ended. No one else was in the throne room but me and the Olympian counsel. My dad had looked grim and all the other gods look at me with varying degrees of anger or in some cases, sadness with the exception of Zeus who look furious. I had been worried something bad had happened until Zeus spoke.

"Percy Jackson, you have been accused of treachery against the gods for aiding our enemy Gaia." He said. I was completely caught off guard. They thought I had spied for Gaia? After all I had done for them?

I was dumbstruck and didn't say anything. Zeus continued. "You have been sentenced to suffer in Tartarus by vote of the counsel." I had looked around the room and pegged who I thought would vote for me to be sent to Tartarus. Zeus obviously, Hera, Dionysius, Ares and Athena but aside from those gods, I thought I was on pretty good terms with all the Olympians. I probably started thinking out loud at some point because Zeus' voice snapped me out of my thoughts and told all the gods who voted against me raise their hands.

I was shocked to see my own father, Aphrodite and Artemis raise their hands in addition to all the gods who I knew would vote against me.

Their faces where the last things I saw before a hole opened below my feet and I fell into the pit.

After the many months I was trapped in here I grew accustom to telling things by their aura. When they don't have aura I learnt a useful trick. I send out a wave of my own aura and then sense what bounces back. Sort of like echolocation but with my aura.

Tartarus is mostly empty space and lacks many landmarks. I've agreed to meet my generals at one of the few landmarks it has, the Doors of Death. It takes me awhile to walk to the doors and the path I follow leads me past many monsters, none of which attack or threaten me. In fact, many of them back off before I get there. Time in the pit is none existent. It's not that Tartarus exists outside of normal time, it's just that when you're in the pit, there's no way of measuring it so my walk could have taken anywhere from an hour to a day and I wouldn't know.

I do eventually arrive however and the assembled generals move to meet me. Kronos, titan of time is the first one to greet me. A mutual understanding is the only thing that keeps the alliance between him and I together. I want the gods gone, he wants the gods gone and I'm the more powerful out of the two of us so I lead. I know he'd slip a knife in my back if I gave him the chance and he knows I'm glad to try and get rid of him as soon as the gods are out of the way. An alliance based upon fear is hardly an alliance at all but for the time being, it works.

After getting acquainted, my generals and I move to stand around the doors. Kronos, my second in command, in the first to speak. "Our forces are ready to deploy per your request." He says. He gets right to the point. No cutting around the bush with him, he's straight and to the point with everything he says.

"Thank you Kronos. Are the materials that we need ready?" I say addressing all my gathered Generals.

This time it was Iapetus who answered. "Yes my lord."

I think for a while before saying anything. Now that all the materials had been gathered there is no reason to wait any longer to start the construction of my fortress. The gods now know of my return so the element of surprise is lost and there's no sense in delaying.

"Very well. Begin construction of the fortress in Alaska. I have marked the location I want it in on this map." I tell the assembled generals before handing the map to Iapetus. He takes it and since he can't read in the darkness, puts it in a pocket in his armour.

I wanted to address one final issue before leaving again so I ask Kronos. "What has become of Artemis?"

"The goddess is being entertained by Typhoon." He replies, the faint outlines of a grin ghosting on his face. Artemis will be kept busy if she's dealing with Typhoon taking one Olympian out of the picture. She deserves it too, after she voted for sending me here.

My generals know the plan. Build a fortress, storm camp half-blood and then take over Olympus.

"Very well, I have business to complete on the surface. Inform me when the fortress." I say before leaving.

- Close -

**Thanks again for reading! Review with any ideas you may have for as to how this story should continue, all your feedback is appreciated!**


	3. Family Reunion

**Disclaimer: No, I still don't own PJO or HoO.  
**

**Hello again! This chapter is a shorter then the last two, just tying up some loose ends regarding Percy's relationships with people after not seeing them for the past year.  
**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Family Reunion -

The climb back to the surface seems to take less time than the climb down, maybe because I'm less impatient to get there. I've grown quite fond of the dark in the time I spent in Tartarus, now I feel out of place in the day and I prefer to operate at night.

Unfortunately, what I am going to do must be done in the day since people are not nocturnal like I am. To make matters worse, be it at all possible, I have to go to New York which will mean slipping through right under the gods noses. Not that that part will be very challenging considering how much attention the gods pay to mortal affairs. Still, it's not going to be easy.

I contemplate all of this as I approach the top of the I get there the door that I came through is closed. I picture where I want it to lead me and then open the door only to be blinded by sudden presence of light.

My eyes quickly adjust and I'm able to take in my surroundings. I'm right outside my mom's apartment, I just hope they still live here. I knock on the door and wait anxiously for a reply. I'm surprisingly nervous about my family again and I think about what the gods would have told them. That I was dead? That I had disappeared? The truth, that I had betrayed the gods? It'll definitely impact our reunion if they think I'm a traitor, but they're my family and family sticks together. I hope.

My pondering is cut short when the door opens. I look up and see my mom, exactly as I remember her. The look of confusion on her face quickly turns to one of relief as she recognize me.

"Mom, I-" I start to say but am cut off when she grabs me in a bear hug. I hug her back and I can feel her crying. I hear Paul call from inside.

"Sally, who's that at the door?" He asks.

"It's Percy, he's back!" She exclaims loudly looking up at me with joy.

"Percy? Is that you?" He says appearing in front of me.

"Percy!" He says and join in the big group hug. "We thought you were dead! Chiron came himself and told us so."

What he says makes me think about whether or not camp know the truth even. If it is, I may have some new allies, after I finish the explanation I own them. My thoughts snap back to the present and I realize I've just been standing there with Paul and mom looking at me.

"I'll tell you all about it inside." I say.

"Of course Percy! Come in!" Mom says. and pulls me inside where we all find places to sit. I get settled in a prepare to recount the past year of my life.

"This whole thing started a few months after the Giant war had ended when I was called to Olympus. Hermes took me there to an emergency meeting of the Olympian counsel. I was the only demigod there. I thought something bad had happened and they needed my help but I was wrong. The gods had accused me of being a traitor, which was a complete lie, and had sentenced me to Tartarus in a vote. I was cast into the pit, where I have been defending myself and training against the monsters that are in there for the past year." I say.

"You were in Tartarus?" Paul asks.

"Yeah. I was in Tartarus. Again." I add the last part as I remember the first time I unexpectedly visited Tartarus, with Annabeth during the Giant War.

"But who voted against you? I thought you were popular amongst a majority the gods." My mom asks.

"Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Artemis and Poseidon." I say grimly. I try to stop myself from letting the disappointment I felt towards Dad leak through but to no avail.

"Poseidon!" Mom asks, shocked. "Why would he want to send you to Tartarus?"

"I still don't know. But this whole thing has opened my eyes to the true nature of the gods. Their petty disputes and arrogant are only hurting civilization now." I say. "The gods, mainly Zeus, will take responsibility this time. And who will save them this time? I was the one who defended their sorry asses in the last two wars."

"Percy, be safe. As much as your mom and I don't think this is the greatest idea, we understand your frustration and we can't force you to do or not do anything. You're your own person now." Paul tells me. Mom nods in agreement.

"Thanks guys, I want you to stay safe as well so I've put powerful wards on these." I say taking out two identical obsidian prisms, each about the size of a fist. "It will protect you from being used as a bargaining chip wherever you go; I would not put it past the gods to stoop that low."

Mom and Paul both take one, albeit reluctantly, and put in them in their pockets.

"Stay safe." I say before giving them each another hug.

Waving my hand over a wall a doorway forms and I step through it, leaving the world of the living behind.

- Close -

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	4. Shadows, my Friends

**Disclaimer: I don't of PJO or anything else I might mention in this story.**

**Hello! Sorry for not updating for a while, I've been busy. But I bring with me, along with this apology, another chapter! Yay!  
**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Shadows, my Friends -

I step through the shadowy gateway and am enveloped by darkness. Not the sort of darkness you find in Tartarus which is a lack of light. Here there is a lack of everything. The first time I ended up here I was trapped for 4 sleep cycles, escaping on the fifth. While I was there I couldn't sense anything, not the floor, or even the air. As far as I knew there wasn't an atmosphere in this place, or anything else for that matter. I couldn't even sense myself while I was there, it was just a void.

That had me pretty scared. I had stared down the fiercest monsters to ever roam the earth and I got creeped out by the dark? I live in the dark, but not this kind of dark. This dark simply had nothing in it.

That was my first visit and to this date, the only unintentional one. My second visit went a little better; though that's not saying much. I had been trying for a month to re-enter the shadowrealm in hopes of exploring it as a possible escape from Tartarus. I had already been in the pit for too long and was quite alright with leaving whenever the opportunity arose.

I had finally succeeded in entering the shadowrealm for a second time but once again, the emptiness of the place caught me off guard. Nonetheless I choose to explore further into this void walking for what seemed like forever. My sleep cycles had shifted as my body had slowly adapted to the dark environment it was forced to cope in.

I walked for a month worths of sleep cycles meaning it was probably closer to two months that I was in there. I slept until I woke and stayed up until I dropped, much longer than any mortal would.

In my two months of exploration I found out quite a bit... of nothing. It seemed to be all that was in this place, nothing. In the two months I walked in a sort of straightish line I not once hit any walls, encountered any life or even tripped and fell. Well, that's not entirely true, I tripped on my own foot once but I didn't fall because as soon as my decent ended, I just kept walking, presumably downwards; if there is an up or down in this place.

I tried to call out once, I hadn't at first because of Tartarus. In there, if you yell or even so much as whisper, something will hear you and in Tartarus, that's never a good thing. Here however, I had gone this entire time without encountering anything and it was starting to creep me out so I decided to go for it.

"Hello, is there anything here?" I yelled loudly. As soon as the words had left my mouth I had already drawn Riptide and was holding it out in front of me. At least, I thought I was, though I couldn't be sure as I couldn't see anything. Not even Riptide's glow could penetrate the shadows.

After not hearing anything for what I counted to be three minutes I call out again, the same message and this time I took notice of my own voice. It had changed in the time I had spent in Tartarus, it was now a foreign raspy sound. It was deeper and more commanding but if you looked deeper into it and saw past the illusion of control you would find it is weak and flimsy like a tower of cards, ready to falling to pieces at a mere touch.

I kept listening and heard nothing. No echo, no answer it was like it just disappeared. I decided then to call it quits and camp here. Camping back then involved lying down and getting comfortable enough to stay asleep for any decent period of time.

My second visit ended when walked back into Tartarus. It would normally be incredibly hard to tell if you're in one place or the other because you can't see anything in either but as soon as I stepped back into Tartarus I started feeling my surroundings again. I was exactly where I left from, even though I knew that I had travelled at least a thousand miles.

I've only been in here four times before. This is my fifth time coming here and this time I know where I'm going. It was on the third time entering the shadowrealm that I figure out one of its biggest secrets.

I was in the middle of fighting the Minotaur, a Fury, the titan Krios and the Hydra all at once. The thing about fighting monsters in Tartarus is that you can't 'Send them to Tartarus' because they're already here. It took awhile to get used to them not disintegrating into dust once I've hit them once and actually take the time to cut each and every one of them repeatedly. Does it kill them? No, it doesn't but dead or no, it's hard to attack people without your arms and legs so I use the good ol' tiny pieces strategy.

Anyhow, I was fighting some unkillable monsters at the bottom of the world and I was doing a pretty good job at it. I had already decapitated the Minotaur, cut off the Fury's wings and was fighting Krios while dodging Hydra heads when the Minotaur in all his headless glory slipped a sword in my back.

It didn't kill me. Like the monsters I fought, I couldn't die while I was in Tartarus but getting stabbed in the back still hurt. A lot.

I kept fighting though, pain wasn't something I was unfamiliar with. I ducked under one of the Hydra's heads and jumped onto it causing one of it's other heads to bit off the one I was on. I jumped from head to head until I got to the Minotaur whose sword arm I cut off followed by both its legs while using it's body as a shield against the Hydra. The fight was going quite well until I sensed two more titans approaching. I probably could have taken them but I had been injured and I wasn't certain so I thought I'd try to escape to the shadowrealm.

That was my third visit to the shadowrealm. It was that time that I discovered that when you exit the shadowrealm, you can exit somewhere other than where you entered. This was huge. If it could get better at this I could use it to escape Tartarus. Of course, it didn't work. When ended up in the shadowrealm a fourth time to try and escape I found that as I pictured the surface and moved forwards, I remained in the shadowrealm. I tried this for a long time, trying at different places all over the world but none of my attempts were successful and I eventually gave up and returned to the pit.

I did escape eventually, after a long trek through Tartarus I came the god himself. Unlucky for him, I was having a pretty bad day when we met otherwise I would have just left him alone but after having to deal with 4 titans simultaneously and then take down Typhoon I was pretty mad and decided to pick a fight with him for the sake of it.

The fight was not the hardest I had fought but it was certainly the longest. Tartarus and I fought sword on sword, neither of us putting a single scratch on the other for the longest time until I decided to throw Riptide at him and tackle him to the ground. That move was probably the stupidest move I'd ever made. Tartarus was a lot stronger than me but I was faster and so we stayed grappling until I felt Riptide return to my pocket. I was counting on the fact the Tartarus didn't know about that feature of Riptide as I freed one hand and grabbing Riptide I cut his head from his body.

I quickly went to work slicing the rest of him into pieces so he couldn't regenerate and then noticed something that I hadn't while I was fighting him. The throne of Tartarus sat in front of me. It was similar to the thrones on Olympus and I deduced that it must be his throne of power. I decided to sit on it, just because no one was here to smite me and to see what it would feel like. When I managed to climb onto it I felt it's aura mixing with my own. The throne shrunk so it was the right size for me and I didn't think much of it at first and left it where it was.

It took awhile for me to realize the power I had and even longer still until I used that power to leave Tartarus. On the surface it was too tiresome to venture down and back up from Tartarus anytime I want to go to someplace different and so that is why I'm here in the shadowrealm. I've really grown quite fond of this place and the little comfort the darkness around me bestows now.

"Shadows, my friends." I think out loud as I picture Camp Half-Blood and step through a portal.

- Close -

**Thank you for reading! Hopefully I will not be as long updating as last time but no promises, I now have two stories I'm writing. This one and another Percy Jackson story Man, Moon and Owl. Review please! It doesn't take much, just type in a few word in the comment box below but I really appreciate it. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad but your comments are what encourage me to write more, quicker.**


	5. Camp Half-Blood

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO**

**Hello! Vote on who is happiest to see Percy: Annabeth, Thalia or Nico.**

**Enjoy R&R!**

- Camp Half-Blood -

I walked into Camp Half-Blood the same way I'd walked into it so many times before, usually after coming back from a dangerous quest for the gods or while being chased by hordes of angry monsters. The only difference is that this time I walked right into a wall.

I probably should have thought about the barrier before walking right up to it but I didn't and I now I'm sitting under Thalia's tree nursing by injured face. I think about what I should do now. I could try and force by way through the barrier and into camp or I could yell and hope someone notices and lets me it. I could even have some monsters pretend to chase me. The Minotaur probably would, he's still pretty mad about the two times I disintegrated him. I've tried numerous times to explain to him that _he _was the one who attacked me but he's stubborn as a bull, literally.

I'm probably safer trying to force by walk through the border, that way, less people might jump to conclusions. Not necessarily false conclusions but if they think I'm a traitor right from the beginning it'll be harder to convince them otherwise.

I get up from under Thalia's tree and walk up to where the barrier is and put my hand close to it. What I'm trying to do is to emulate the energy that the barrier is made up of with my aura so that I can pass through without the border opposing me.

The barrier glows into existence as soon as I start throwing energy at it. I change my aura constantly and wait until one of the changes clicks and I can pass through. The problems will start when I run out of energy, then I won't have any aura to shield me as I pass through it.

I'm three minutes in and I estimate I can probably keep going for another five or more. I keep changing my aura as a minute passes. Then another. And another.

Six minute in and I'm starting to feel really tired. Your aura is what keeps you alive and I'm losing more and more of it every second I keep this up.

Eight minutes in and I'm about to call it quits when I feel a shift in the barrier. I try to slip my hand past it and it works so my whole body soon follows. Now inside the barrier I trap my aura inside me, determined not to use any more of it until it recharges. I look at camp for awhile thinking. Now that I'm here I don't really know what to do, will the gods have told camp about what happened? Will the campers even recognise me?

As I'm thinking I fail to notice a younger camper walk up to me, something that should never happen. That's something that the old Percy would do, not me. Had I been in Tartarus I would have already been eaten whole. Nevertheless I look down at the camper in front of me. He looks to be maybe 14 or 15 but I've never seen him before so he must me new. So much for the gods keeping their promises, they probably thought after they sent me to Tartarus that they didn't need to keep their oath, yet another of their many faults.

"Hey you, you're pretty old to be a demigod. How did you get in here?" The camper in front of me asks, his hand resting on his sword hilt. I think about what I'm going to say. I should probably not saw anything and go right to Chiron but I don't really want to have to fight this guy.

"Hey, I need to go see Chiron, can you take me to him?" I say avoiding both of his questions.

"You know who Chiron is?" He asks me.

"Yeah, now can you take me to him?"

"How do I know you're not one of the bad guys?" He asks narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Because you're still alive, and besides, the barrier would have stopped me if I was. Now I really need to see Chiron." I answer him. I take a step forwards, intent on walked past him. He draws his sword and levels it at me.

"I think you should wait here until a patrol comes and remember, I have a sword and you don't so don't try anything." He says. I'm both annoyed and impressed by him. Annoyed because I really need to see Chiron and impressed by how much more arrogant the campers have gotten after the war. Judging by the way this guy holds his sword he's probably never been in a really sword fight before or he'd have been killed.

I step to the side and use the palm of my hand to push his blade away from my chest while bringing my other hand down on his wrist making his grip on the sword loosen and then grab the hilt and pull the sword from his grasp.

"What was that about you having a weapon?" I ask as I hold his sword in my left hand leaving my right hand ready to draw Riptide.

He looks at me with a shocked expression on his face. I drive his sword into the ground until it's firmly wedge into the soil and walk off heading towards the Big House. I don't run into any other campers and reach the Big House without incident. I knock on the room and wait outside, hoping that Mr D doesn't answer the door because he knows what happened while everyone else might not.

Chiron opens the door and looks at me. Time to see exactly how much the camp knows about where I've been.

"Percy, is that really you?" He asks me looking surprised.

"Yeah, I'm back." I answer. "Can I come inside?"

"Yes, yes of course. Come in and you can tell me what's happened to you over the past year." He leads me inside where I take a seat.

"Thanks," I say when he hands me a glass of water. "How's everyone been?"

"I'll leave that to them to explain, you can go see them later today. What has happened to you over the past year?" He asks.

"Quite a bit but you may not want to know." I say.

"Nonsense, whatever you have to say I can listen to." He says.

"Well it all started when Hermes came to visit me, he said there was a meeting on Olympus I needed to attend that was of the utmost importance. He teleported me there and the counsel got underway. As it turns out, I was the reason for this meeting. I had been falsely accused of treason during the war and apparently the council was meeting to decide my punishment. I was sentenced to banishment, to Tartarus. I-" Chiron cuts me off.

"But that would mean more than half the members of the council voted against you. Who did?" Chiron asks me.

"Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, Dionysus, Aphrodite, Artemis and Poseidon voted to send me to Tartarus. Hephaestus and Demeter remain neutral and Hermes and Apollo voted for my innocence." I say. Chiron looked shocked but motioned for me to continue my story.

"Anyhow, after they reached a verdict a hole opened up and I fell into Tartarus where I have been for the past year."

"But you're here now, how did you escape Tartarus?" Chiron asks me.

"I didn't escape, I commanded the pit to open a portal into the mortal world. You see, while I was it Tartarus I ran into the god of the same name. After I defeated him I took his throne and now, the pit answers to me so I simply had to order it to let me leave and it let me."

"Amazing." Chiron says then he adds. "If the gods want to in Tartarus though they will find a way, you cannot fight them."

"Actually Chiron, that's why I'm here. I'm recruiting. What has Olympus done for these demigods? Have they helped them? Have they even kept to their oath? Probably not seeing as I was gone. The gods stand on the shoulders of demigods and I'm going to change that." I say.

"Percy, you're starting to sound like Luke." Chiron says, trying to be a voice of reason.

"Chiron, how many campers died defending Olympus? How many demigods have died on the errands of the gods?"

"They were killed, all of them, by the monsters that you're choosing to side with."

"I'm not on the monsters' side, they are on _my _side. I command them, or have you not noticed the lack of monster attacks in the past month."

Chiron sighed. "You should go talk to your friends, we'll talk more about this later. I am going to talk to the gods, you stay hidden."

"Thank you for listening Chiron. And don't worry, the gods won't know I'm here. Yet."

I walk out of the Big House and leave Chiron to his thoughts while making my way down to the cabins.

It's good to me back.

- Close -

**Thanks for reading, remember to vote on who you think will be happiest that Percy is back. I'll try to update again sometime this weekend.**


	6. Annabeth

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO or very much else.**

**Hello! Sorry, it's been awhile, hasn't it. I'll try to update more often but no promises.**

**Enjoy, R&R!**

- Annabeth -

I walk off towards the cabins to find my friends. Camp Half-Blood looks the exact same as when I was forced to leave. I spend the entire walk relishing the familiarity of the terrain. It's not exactly the same though, a year has gently shaped the familiar slopes into something new. The earth rests for no one after all.

It wouldn't normally have taken as long as it did to walk from the Big House to the cabins but I didn't rush. I think about contemplating who to go visit first but then I realize it's no contest. I walk to the Athena cabin and hope she's there because I'd prefer not to repeat the Half-Blood Hill incident.

I get to her cabin and knock on the doorframe. Malcolm comes to the doorway and his formerly cheerful face pales when he sees me. I didn't really think I looked _that _bad but I haven't exactly had a lot of mirrors to go inspect my reflection in recently.

"I'd like to speak to Annabeth." I tell him. He relaxes a bit.

"She's down by the lake."

"Oh, okay. Thanks." I walked off leaving Malcolm to return to his normal state of existence. I wonder what it was that made him so nervous? Maybe I'll ask Annabeth when I see her. She might know why everyone seems to be avoiding me. During my walk I should have passed numerous people but I didn't, odd. After a bit of walking I arrive at the beach and I see Annabeth sitting on the sand, staring out over the water. The urge to run up to her is almost overpowering but I keep it in check because this is the perfect opportunity to try out a new trick I've been working on.

Quietly as I can, I sneak up behind her and the focusing my energy I lift some of the water out of the lake. The hard part about this is that I want it to form letters which requires a lot of control and concentration. I write the words 'TURN AROUND' using the water from the lake and Annabeth's reaction really is priceless. She jump up and spins around to see me sitting less than 10 feet behind her. I grin at her. Not my usually 'I'm-going-to-kill-you-because-I'm-that-cool' grin but my 'it's-great-to-see-you-too' grin. She runs up to me and throws her arms around me. I feel her crying onto my shoulder and I lie her down and look at her. She's changed in a year, more so than Camp Half-Blood has. She looks older and wiser, if that's even possible. We sit staring at each other for many minutes, just being comfortable in the moment, not something that rarely happens to someone who's ADHD.

Annabeth breaks the silence first. "You're back." She says.

"Yeah."

"I take it you haven't been dead for the past year."

"No, but it almost would have been better if I had been."

"Where were you?"

"Tartarus." I say it so offhandedly. Annabeth doesn't take it that way seeing as she whips her head around from staring over the water to look at me.

"You've been in Tartarus."

"More than once now, unfortunately."

"Why?!" The look of confusion on Annabeth's face would be really funny normally but in the moment it doesn't affect me at all. I sigh, something I've been doing way too much recently.

"It's a long story."

"We have plenty of time."

So I start at the beginning, I tell Annabeth about the emergency meeting and about who voted against me. I tell her about what happened after, falling into Tartarus but I don't go into very much detail about what happened while I was in there, she knows. I tell her about how I escaped though and include the duel with Tartarus and my subsequent inheritance of throne of Tartarus. I tell her about my plans for the gods and surprisingly, she's the first not to disagree with it.

"I can't believe they did that to you after everything you've done to help them."

"I didn't either, Tartarus changed that." Annabeth pulls me into a hug. It's nice to know someone cares.

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better."

"What are your plans now? I want to come with you, I'm certainly not leaving you to go off by yourself. You've had a year to do that." I grin and grudgingly concede that yes, she should definitely come with me.

"Nothing, not even the gods themselves, can keep up apart." I say. Annabeth hugs me harder, leaving me gasping for breath.

"Need. Ribs. Unbroken." I manage to say with the oxygen I have left. Annabeth reluctantly loosens her grip around me then eventually, lets go altogether. We sit on the beach together, savouring the moment.

"You're plans?" Annabeth prompts me. I jump a little at the sound of her voice. Right! The plans! I had completely forgotten to tell her.

"Right! My plans!" I say. "Well, I'm here at Camp Half-Blood to look for supporters. I won't face demigods, a lot of whom are my friends, in order to reach Olympus. I won't be like Luke." Annabeth squeezes my hand at the mention of his name.

"You're nothing like Luke, Percy." She says.

"All the people who've died in the wars fought for the gods. Imagine all the campers that would be here if not for the wars. I don't want this to be one of them. I've seen enough war for a couple lifetimes to come, but I've also seen enough suffering to know that the world would be better off without the gods fighting their battles in our world without heed to their consequences on us." I say. I know Annabeth has seen a lot as well, I know what it feel like to have the sky resting on your shoulders, literally. It's not fun and we both know it.

"Yeah, but what happens when they're gone? Will we really be better rulers?"

"Who better to rule the world than the people who live in it."

"I guess."

A calm silence falls upon us. I think of what I said earlier, about how many people died in the wars. Beckendorf, Silena, neither of whom I knew very well. More recently, Piper had died in the final confrontation with Gaia after a boulder had been dropped on her. The total death toll from the Giant War alone was almost 200 demigods. It may not seem like a lot, but back then it had been at least a third of all the demigods we knew of. The whole First Cohort had been obliterated when fissure had opened up beneath them. Artemis had lost over half her hunters. Less than 100 campers had survived the battle, out of the 200 who started it and that's just the demigods. The satyr population had gone down by 40% after the war and throughout Greece the total number of dryads had been halved, mostly due to the many earthquakes devastated the area.

Annabeth brings be back from my thoughts by yanking on my arm to haul me up. "Come on Seaweed Brain, let's go find Nico. We've kept him waiting long enough." She says as I allow myself to be dragged back to the cabins. "Ok. Ok. I can walk." I tell her once I regain some amount of balance. I look at her, with her wavy blonde hair and storm grey eyes. She was something the gods could never take away from me.

But I'd like to see them try.

- Close -

**Thanks for reading! Please comment, it really brightens my day to read what you think be it good or bad.**


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